30,000 Pounds Of Bananas
Composer(s): Harry Chapin
Performer(s): Harry Chapin



It was just after dark when the truck started down
the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas
Carrying thirty thousand pounds (hit it Big John) of bananas

He was a young driver
just out on his second job
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
for everyone in that coal-scarred city 
where children play without despair 
in backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day 
about thirty thousand pounds of bananas
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds (scream it again, John) 

He passed a sign that he should have seen
saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend." 
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman 
who was waiting at the journey's end
He started down the two mile drop
the curving road that wound from the top of the hill
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot
Just a few more miles to go
then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away
and the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas
Yes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas 

He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights 
delights went through him
His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down
But the pedal floored easy without a sound 
He said "Christ!" 
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide
riding on his fear-hunched back 
was every one of those yellow green 
I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas 

He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour
And he said "God, make it a dream!" 
as he rode his last ride down
And he said "God, make it a dream!" 
as he rode his last ride down 
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars
clipped off thirteen telephone poles
hit two houses, bruised eight trees 
and Blue-Crossed seven people
it was then he lost his head 
not to mention an arm or two before he stopped
And he slid for four hundred yards 
along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania 
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas

You know the man who told me about it on the bus
as it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania
he shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head
and he said (and this is exactly what he said) 
"Boy that sure must've been something
Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas
Of bananas, bananas, just bananas
Thirty thousand pounds of Bananas, not no driver now, just bananas!"